My everyday life; the way I see things; living in the moment and being grateful!

Trails

August 27, 2009

A beautiful night for a walk. I'm getting back into a routine and building up to some running. Still reaching for that as a goal. Sometimes I feel tired after work and don't want to go work out. I am a morning workout person by nature. But I am telling myself that I just need to GET THE EXERCISE IN - ANYTIME in the day. It's all about priorities..

My walk after supper.

The two most important things I NEED to accomplish in the day are 1. Exercise & 2. Eat healthy, after that everything else is a bonus. I was going to say "after that everything else is "gravy" but thought the irony would be too much, ha, ha....

I stopped to smell the flowers. I'm not sure what this is but it is a beauty.

Once I was outside I was so happy to be out in nature.

I did a really good walk with Tessa about 1 hour. It felt great.

The path to wellness....

The last days of summer; it is such a special time of the year. The light is so great.

A hugh shout out to PJ, Diane and Jess, you guys are my biggest cheerleaders! I love you guys! You all Motivate Me so much with all your great strides in being fit and healthy! Thank-you all.

August 03, 2009

I have had a great week this past week spending time with my husband is this beautiful place, Banff, Alberta. I have visited many times and each time I do it takes my breath away.

This holiday we splurged and stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel, something I have always wanted to do. It was so worth it. I love places with history and character and a past. The hotel is gorgeous and castle-like and very historic.

We went on a hike by the river.

The water is really that blue.

The hike along the bow falls has some great trails,there are a lot of handmade rock stairs.

Lots of stairs...

This is the view from the top of the bow falls.

We stayed active and enjoyed the outdoors; easy to do here.

The Colombian Ground Squirrel a cousin to the squirrels we have living in our garage, somehow they seem cuter here.

We did some looking around the town.

I love all the stone work.

I didn't take pictures of all my meals. Some things were healthy and some were not so much but overall in holiday mode, I have been trying to be careful of what I am eating and if I do chose something that is not in my plan at least I try and enjoy it if you know what I mean. This caesar salad was excellent and I really enjoyed it. I did pretty good with the food and choices as a whole except for a fudge incident on our second night. I bought some fudge (maple walnut - sorry no photos) from a local candy shop and proceeded to eat the entire chunk and be very sick to my stomach..... not good. I felt like a little kid who ate too much candy, which is essentially what I did do. It was always a tradition to get fudge at Banff and I was feeling a little too nostalgic I guess... I learned my lesson on that one.

We really enjoyed drinks in the lounge in the evening. This nut mix was sooo good and dangerous. We tried an organic shiraz, Bonterra,(Californian I think) that I really enjoyed.

Nice....

Every night we walked around the grounds.

One night we had an amazing meal in the main dining - beef tenderloin.....

Relaxing!

This was the most amazing Muesli I have ever had. I went on and on for about 1 hour about how good this was. My husband really enjoyed that. So tasty. I want to replicate it at home with a lower fat version. I am thinking the whip cream may have had something to do with it?

When I make my low fat home version I will post it on here.

It was so nice to relax and take in all of the fresh mountain air and stay in such a nice place and eat good food and drink nice wine. I am very grateful and feeling thankful!

June 29, 2009

That was my workout today. I went for a 1 hour walk with my kids and our dog. My son on his new longboard and my daughter with her new rollerblades and our dog with her saucy attitude. It was a good workout and I am still aiming toward running. Glad to get back to the workout routine.

I love looking at the world from my dog's perspective.

I ate healthy today lots of salad and veggies. Tried to make up for too much food on the weekend.

I added fresh basil to the red leaf lettuce and a few kalamata olives, green onions, celery, tomatoes and cucumber....

Dressing is 6 tablespoons of olive oil to 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. I only used a small amount.

Tonight I am going to do some crunches and the exercise called "the bridge". I have been going to physio for the last little while for my knee/hip/pelvis out of whack and I need to strengthen the glutes and the muscle on the inside of the knee to balance out the pull on the knee so "the bridge it is". And then some stretches. I am trying to look at exercise as each little bit helps instead of an all or nothing attitude which I tend to do sometimes. Hopefully this will help me get to my goal.

June 02, 2009

A constant theme in my life: "Getting Organized". I do so much better when I am organized so I spent the last few days making a "Central Binder" to organize my life. I do better with paper I don't use an electronic organizer. So this is what I came up with

I have divided the sections with collaged pages (my art obsession) and made the pertinent sections for my life right now.

So the idea is this is where I keep track of running the household, meal planning, exercise schedule, general schedule, master list, any list....etc... All in one place as opposed to scattered about the house!

My tabs are those post-it note durable filing tabs so you can change them if you need to.

I have been working outside lately doing tons of landscaping and planting in the front and back yard so I haven't been doing any elaborate cooking but hope to soon.

My goals for eating this week are: Eat sensible portions, whole, healthy food with protein at each meal and snack. Keep track of calories (going to try that for one week). PORTION Control is key for me. I have posted my new weigh-ins for the last two weeks here. I am doing OK but I know I can do so much better. I will keep moving forward and doing the work.

Tuesday Workout (today):

60 minute walk with Tessa

I picked a path with some hills to make it more intense. I still want to build up to running.

May 17, 2009

My workout that is. I have been doing OK but I think I need to work harder during each session. I need to really sweat it out and get my heart rate up. Also I would like to do something everyday ideally but on 2 days per week either have a lighter workout or one day when I can take a break...I am just throwing that out there into the universe to get myself started in the right direction.

Today I went for an hour long walk with the kids (on bikes) and Tessa. It was very nice to get outside and walk but next time I need to go faster I think. Still, I am glad I took time out to get out there. In the past sometimes it was difficult to even drag myself out of the house I am afraid to say. Not anymore!

My faithful Tessa!

Starting today I am committing to doing 100 each of one of the following each day - ab exercises of some sort, push ups and squats. I may not be able to do them all in a row but I will get them done. I got this idea from Lighter Portions on the right side/column of her blog. I think it is a fabulous idea so I am going to adopt it. I like the idea of having some goal to do at home and something to check off. Love the blog by Kristie over at Lighter Portions if you haven't checked it out yet I highly recommend it. Warning though if you are hungry be prepared because her food photos are amazing.

Me taking a rest while the kids swing.

I got these amazing flowers from some work friends. The girl who made this arrangement is sooo creative. Lucky me.

So I am off to make some of those recipes I have been looking at in my Jamie's Food Revolution Cookbook.

April 09, 2009

The "proverbial freaking out mode wall" if there is such a thing. I am OK now but boy did it hit me like a ton of bricks... Just general anxiety about keeping this up, getting all done in my life, getting sleep etc...

I did get a workout in today and I did eat where within my calories but seriously switching ones life around really does take some adjustment. I know I said this before but it has been an adjustment. Reprioritizing time, getting up earlier, planning meals (not just stuffing anything in). And today it was all a bit too much for me. I felt a little crack in the facade.

The good news....I did not stuff myself with fluffy carbs or sweet sugars. I layed down and tried to just be and rest. Then I ate within my calories. Not that it was all glorious or anything. There were no angel trumpets of any sort. I felt tired and grumpy and defeated after a long week of changes. But reading this back I feel a bit like a complainer and I don't want to be that. I believe these are normal growing pains in this change I am making. So I am going to just take the positive - I am moving forward and I did not crumble. Yeah!!

I tried a new thing today - A walk on my lunch hour. I did a 30 minute quick pace walk. Here are a couple of photos:

I guess life would be kind of boring if we didn't challenge ourselves.